Provocative
by star-rock
Summary: DMHG Hermione discovers a secret about the school and about herself! I don't know what else to put... NEW CHAPTER UP!
1. Larceny

**Provacative**

**Chapter 1: **Larceny

**Disclaimer: We all know I don't own any Harry Potter Characters. I do however own Kira!**

**A/N:** Some of the time frames mentioned are slightly askew.

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Hermione sat in potions, totally motionless. Snape was having the time of his life because Hermione hadn't said two words and the class was almost over. He was able to take tons of points from Gryffindor for not answering correctly. Then he took more points from them for grumbling, mostly at Hermione. 

But it was like she didn't even hear them. She just sat, watching Snape intently. Her steady gaze on him was a bit disconcerting, but he was having too much fun to take much notice.

Hermione could hear the Slytherins whispering and giggling about her, making outrageous accusations like she had performed some spell terribly wrong and it had caused her tongue to fall out. Or that she was pissed at Harry for cheating on her, or even worse, she was mad at Harry for cheating on her with Ron! She wasn't even dating anyone. She'd never gone out with Harry.

_Totally ridiculous._ Hermione just rolled her eyes. This was the stupidest stuff in the world. She was a bit disappointed in the Slytherins. She thought they could come up with something a bit more believable. She noticed that while the whole of Slytherin was cracking up, neither Blaise nor Draco said anything. They laughed at a few of the jokes, but they didn't make any themselves. So far Pansy and Selene were in the lead for the most jokes, tying at 14. After that was Goyle with 12, all incredibly dumb, and then Marcus with 8.

_That's 26…34 jokes about me. _Hermione didn't really care about how many jokes they were making. She just automatically counted and added the numbers. It was kind of an obsessive thing. Almost like OCD.

She glanced at her watch. _Seven minutes. Thank the good Lord. I'm bored out of my mind!_ She closed her eyes and slid down in her desk. Opening her eyes a crack, she saw Ron and Harry staring at her. She raised an eyebrow at them and they raised one in return. She just closed her eyes again. She centered her breathing and focused on her surroundings. If she really concentrated she could hear the mice scurrying in the ceiling. It sounded like there were about 5. _A family maybe?_ Hermione started to think about her family. A broken group of people who lied to her for her whole life.

When Snape dismissed them, she sat in her desk until the crowd had thinned a bit. Draco was still gathering his things, in a very unhurried fashion and Blaise was waiting for him at the door. She observed Blaise for the whole 7 seconds it took to reach the exit. As she left she gave him a little wink. He looked taken aback for half a second, and then he was composed and stony again. He glanced at Draco to check if he'd seen the wink. When he turned back, Hermione was gone.

_I can' t believe I just did that!_ Hermione though with admiration of herself. But then she started to worry that Blaise would start saying stuff about her and she instantly regretted what she'd done. She was making herself nauseous with all her nervous thoughts.

Hermione took the long, lonely route back to her rooms. She thought about all the crap people were saying then smiled to herself. If so many people were talking shit, then she must be rather popular.

_Yup, I know everyone wants to get with this! Sigh, yeah right…_Then she imagined a world where she was sexy and knew the perfect thing to say at any moment, where she could get any guy she wanted and where everyone wanted to be friends with her. _Yeah, it's a bit conceited, but it's just a daydream right? Everyone has to have a dream, no matter how tiny or pointless._

Hermione was lost in her thoughts for some time. Eventually she realized that she had no idea where she was going. She was wandering mindlessly through the castle. She didn't even know what floor she was on. She decided to go up the next staircase she saw. It was a narrow stone one with no railings. They led to a small doorway that she had to duck her head to get through. She entered a small round room. There were many windows and a doorway leading outside. She followed the light streaming into the room, feeling slightly scared. Once outside she was puzzled. It appeared that she was in a tower, but she'd been in every tower of the castle and none of them looked like this. It was quite lovely, but she could only see the west and south sides of the castle. The tower seemed to be in the middle of the school.

_Hmm…I'll have to investigate this. But I don't think I'll tell anyone about it just yet. It wasn't in Hogwarts: A History. Maybe it's in the school blue prints._ Hermione wondered where she could find out more about this strange thing. She'd heard of invisble towers before, but those were only in fairy tales. So far no wizard had been powerful enough to keep something so big totally invisble.

After about ten minutes, Hermione decided it was time to go. Except she didn't know how to get to her room. She went back into the round room and looked around. She was searching for something, but she didn't know what. She stared at the walls and noticed something strange. Some of the bricks were shorter than the others. She walked closer to these shorter bricks and realized they made the outline of a door. _Amazing!_

She gently put her hand on what she expected to be cool brick, but to her great amazement and fear, her hand went straight through the wall. Quick as lightning she pulled her hand back. She stared at the door for another minute. _What the hell is going on here?_

She put her hand out again. Slowly her fingers sank into the wall. Again she pulled them out. She started trying spots all over the door to see if it was just that one spot that would do that, or if the whole door would. Soon she worked up the courage to put both hands in at the same time. They went through the door just like she had expected. She began to speculate on what was on the other side. She wondered if maybe there was a class on the other side. The thought made her laugh out loud as she envisioned children studiously paying attention and taking notes, then seeing this hand going in and out of the wall. She thought it'd be hilarious if they saw her whole head and before she knew what she was doing she was walking through the door. _Oh my gosh, where am I?_

She gasped and quickly backed up, praying with all her might that the weird portal hadn't closed up leaving her stuck in that dark hall.

Soon she was staring at the door again. This was insane! She had no idea what was going on, and started to wonder if someone was playing a trick on her. Whatever was going on, she decided that was enough experimenting for today and hurried out the door she came in, down the stairs, and out a random door at the bottom. She walked for a few meters before she began to recognize her surroundings and could make her way back to her room without getting too lost.

When she walked into her common area, Kira was chilling on her couch along with Ron and Harry. They were all laughing and talking and both boys were paying an _awful_ lot of attention to Kira. Kira didn't seem to notice however._ No, Kira doesn't ever seem to realize the effect she has on men._ Hermione sighed and tried to push away her envy. _At least she's not conceited._

"Hermione!" Kira jumped up and ran to Hermione. It was the first day of their 6th year; Hermione hadn't seen Kira for 3 or 4 weeks. She'd met Kira on her trip to Egypt with her mother at the beginning of summer. They'd become friends fast. As had their mothers, ensuring that they spent a lot of time together while in Cairo.

"Where have you been!" They all three yelled at Hermione simultaneously.

"You really DO love me!" she said dramatically. Kira laughed at her, but Ron and Harry just rolled their eyes.

"Seriously, 'mione, where you been? Class got out like 45 minutes ago." Ron walked over to her.

Hermione didn't want to tell them what really happened, but she didn't know if they'd believe any of her stories. _Let's see, I got sick? No…I stopped in the library for a sec! But then, why couldn't they find me in there, because I KNOW they looked in there for me. Umm…they just didn't see me? Yeah…that's it! They didn't see me._

"I stopped in the library for a sec." Both Ron and Harry knew that when Hermione said "sec", it was more like half hour.

_Crap! I don't have any books with me!_

"Wow Hermione, I can't believe you didn't come back with enough books to keep you stocked for the whole year." Ron said, skepticism in his voice.

"Well, I would have, except after finding like 7 books, I remembered that I had practically my own personal library here, so I could just read these books, and when I finished these I could go to the library."

Kira was getting bored with this conversation. What Hermione did with every second of her life was not her concern, and she couldn't figure out why Ron seemed to be giving her the 3rd degree.

"Oh, well, you're back now, so you can go to dinner with us!" And with that Kira grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her out into the hall. Hermione just laughed and let herself be dragged along by her fairly new friend.

Ron ran out yelling for them to wait up, and Harry just stood there with one eyebrow raised.

At dinner, Hermione told Kira all the stuff the Slytherins had said about her. Kira and her mother had been the ones that taught Hermione to hear the things that others didn't. They had said all she had to do was listen. Hermione was thankful for their guidance. She was going through a troubled time when she met them. She had known something was wrong the minute her mother told her that they were going to Egypt. When her father had died 4 years earlier her mother had taken her on a trip to Mexico. Hermione didn't know why her mother took them places when bad stuff happened, but she knew that she didn't really like trips because something bad always happened. This time they had left England so her mother could tell her that the father she'd been mourning for 4 years wasn't hers.

But she wouldn't even tell Hermione who her real father was! She spent the whole trip trying to get the name of her father and her mother had spent the whole trip pretending she didn't hear Hermione.

"Ugh! I've only been here one day and I already know why everyone hates Slytherin!" Kira was explaining. "They're so pigheaded." She said rather loudly, her voice laced with disdain.

Hermione smiled at her friend. Kira was so nice. She seemed to be the polar opposite of Hermione for the most part. She was so passionate and had an opinion about EVERYTHING, whereas Hermione was a bit on the apathetic side and honestly didn't care about a lot of things. She didn't used to be so apathetic, but it seemed like she'd built up a defense over the years.

"What's that the slut said?" she recognized Blaise's voice. The Slytherin table instantly went quiet, except for Malfoy who was chuckling at Blaise's comment. No one at Gryffindor had heard, but Kira and Hermione. Both turned slowly in their seats and glared at Blaise.

The black haired Slytherin just lifted his goblet towards them and continued to stare over the rim, his obsidian eyes glittering with the reflection of the contents in his glass. Malfoy gave a lopsided smile and winked at Hermione. Then both students went back to their meals as though nothing had happened, chattering politely to one another. The rest of the Slytherin table stared at them for some time after until Kira couldn't take it anymore and made a very rude gesture with her fingers.

Hermione, very calmly turned back around in her chair. She took a sip of juice and prepared herself for what would come next.

_3,2,1…_

And then the torrent of curses and remarks came pouring out of Kira's mouth. Hermione listened to her, nodding politely every now and then, agreeing with most of what Kira said. At the mention of Slytherin, Ron and Harry instantly entered the conversation, relishing every opportunity to bash on Slytherin.

Hermione's friends talked about Slytherin for the rest of dinner. Hermione became quite uninterested halfway through and started thinking about all sorts of disconnected subjects.

_I'm glad Kira and Harry and Ron are getting along so well._

_Maybe Blaise has a crush on Kira. Wouldn't that be funny!_

I need to go to the library… 

And with that last thought, Hermione got up and said "I'm off" to her friends who all gave a small wave and proceeded to come up with ways of torturing various Slytherins.

"Whatever." Hermione said to no one in particular as she left. She was totally absorbed by her thoughts once again. She slowly ambled down to the library. Many times her head shot up because she thought she heard footsteps. But when she turned around, there was no one there.

She spent a long time in the library, searching for blueprints of the school. All such records were in a room off by themselves. Hermione soon lost track of the time but figured it was well into the evening. She skimmed over the room once again, hoping for any little scrap of help. She had found tons of blueprints in the school, all made around 1990, and none of which were any help to her. She wondered if maybe the tower was built after 1990. But that was HIGHLY unlikely. So she continued to search. She pulled out an older map of the school and spun around to find her self looking up into the fiery blue eyes of Draco Malfoy.

Draco stared at Hermione intently. She looked so vulnerable with her brown hair flying every which way, breasts heaving; he felt a sudden stab of protectiveness. But this was quickly pushed aside.

"Planning a heist, Granger?" Draco asked, glancing at all the blueprints on the table.

Hermione gave a small smile, summoning up courage. He was just another guy after all.

"Better lock up your valuables." Hermione replied, feeling flirtatious and slightly nauseous.

"Really Granger? I never thought you capable of larceny. Oh wait, you are a poor mudblood. You're probably an expert." Draco said, a dare in his eyes.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head. "Ah, Draco. You are very stupid." Hermione said with a smile.

Draco's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. He didn't like being called stupid straight to his face. "Well miss Granger, I have a bit of a wager for you."

"I'm listening." Hermione said, curious.

"You steal something from me within 2 weeks"

"Or what?"

"Or" and with that Draco leaned down and whispered right into Hermione's ear "you have to do whatever I ask for a week." Draco moved closer to Hermione, backing her up into the bookshelf.

Hermione stared over Draco's shoulder at nothing. "Whatever you ask…?" she whispered, slightly frightened.

Draco pressed himself hard against her, effectively pinning her body to the shelf. His mouth was skimming her neck and nipping at the skin behind her ear. "Anything" he said with a slight hiss.

It was getting harder for Hermione to breathe. She squirmed around and tried to get herself out of Draco's grasp. She was afraid of him. She acted fearless, but deep inside she was a scaredy cat.

Draco's arms tightened around her when she started to move his fingers digging deeply into her hips sure to leave bruises.

Then he smashed his mouth on hers, forcing entrance. Slowly his tongue pried her lips apart, and her entered her warm mouth. He leisurely moved his tongue over hers, licking her lips, coaxing a response out of her.

Slowly Hermione began to respond, wrapping her arms around his neck. His mouth tasted like honey and she was ever so slowly becoming intoxicated with his kisses.

Draco's hand slid up Hermione's waist, over her ribcage and cupped one of her plump breasts. It fit perfectly in his hand, and he began a slow rhythmic kneading that was shooting darts of pleasure to Hermione and fanning at the embers burning in the pit of her stomach.

Hermione was getting lost in Draco. When his mouth left hers and began to trail down her neck to the hem of her shirt, Hermione finally came to her senses. She gasped and pushed at Draco who had become lost in the softness of her body. He staggered back and stared at Hermione for a long second before Hermione ran away with all the speed she could muster.

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**A/N:** Please tell me how you liked it! And can anyone tell me if they still do the backwards peace sign in England. Ya know, it's like the British middle finger... 


	2. Silver Snake

**Provocative**

**Chapter 2: **Silver Snakes

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, except for Kira. The ENTIRE plot, however, was compiled by who? Me!**

**A/N:** I do believe this chapter is a bit shorter. The mystery is unfolding!

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Panting, Hermione lay on her bed. Everyone else in her dorm was asleep. She thought about waking Kira up and telling her everything that happened, but after a few minutes of contemplation she decided she'd keep it to herself for a while. 

She couldn't figure out what Draco was pulling, no matter how hard she tried. She came up with various theories, none of which she thought were plausible.

What am I going to do! …Wait a minute! What the heck do I get out of this bet! 

Hermione soon realized that she had no reason to take on Draco's dare. Except that if she stole something of his, it would be hilarious, not to mention a nice little bit o' payback for earlier. Thinking about what had transpired this evening, Hermione began to worry that Draco would tell the school about what had happened. But would he admit to making out with a "mudblood"? She decided he wouldn't. He wouldn't want to ruin his rep.

Hermione finally decided that she would steal something from Draco. Tomorrow, even though it may cause some embarrassment, she was going to clearly define the terms of their bet. She'd probably steal something from him even if he didn't agree to the bet.

With her peace of mind finally settled she fell asleep and dreamt a strange dream.

Fog, smoke, dream effect, etc…" 

"Daddy…?" Hermione could hear herself calling out to her father. She looked the same as she looked now, but she could instinctively tell that she was not even one year old. There was a man lying on the floor before her, blood pooling around him, a thick puddle of death. He was clutching his heart, his body writhing in agony. He had dark brown, nearly black hair and chocolate eyes. He looked up at her and she could feel herself looking back. This was her father.

"Daddy!" she yelled again as she ran towards his mangled body. She dropped down beside him, her knees sinking in the blood draining from the gaping wound on his chest. When she looked closer at his chest she realized that he wasn't clutching his heart. He was covering the hole where his heart should have been!

Her eyes widened in horror as she took in the terrible state of her father. He was gasping for air. Hermione consoled him as best she could. She didn't know what to do. The man had no heart! There was no saving him without his heart. So she stroked his hair back and sat with him.

"Hermione…"it was a horse whisper.

"Yes daddy, what is it?" Hermione asked anxiously. He tried to speak for several more seconds before he simply smiled and was gone. Hermione laid her head on his chest and cried. She soon felt something hard on her head. She looked down and saw a small medallion hanging from her father's neck. It was a dragon! She peered down at it until the dream faded.

Light was streaming in through the curtains that surrounded her bed. She opened her eyes a crack and when the light blinded her she squeezed them shut. She felt restless and her mind was clouded. There was something she was trying to remember but she couldn't quite grasp it. Speaking of grasping, what was she holding? She turned onto her stomach and looked at what she was holding. It was a silver dragon medallion.

Her entire dream from the night before came flooding back. Her father! What a horrible dream it was! Was it real? She was now holding the same necklace she had dreamed about. Maybe she was still dreaming. But everything was too real. She didn't know what was going on, but she was determined to find out.

She went over every detail of her dream many times, looking for any little scrap she may have missed that would explain the necklace in her hand, but to no avail. _Library time!_ She thought with a smile. But her smile was quickly replaced with a frown as the events of last night came rushing to mind. A small blush painted her cheeks. She still had to deal with Malfoy today!

She was still tired and the thought of Malfoy as well as her horrible dream had put a definite damper on her day. So she rolled onto her side and tried to recapture that wonderful feeling between sleep and awake where all sorts of things happened but her efforts proved futile. She was just giving herself a headache. _I hate when I wake up early on a Saturday!_ So she got out of bed and decided that the first event of the day should be a shower. After that she'd grab some toast or something and head to the library for a few hours. Then maybe she'd check out that weirdo tower again. She tried to ignore the fact that she was deliberately avoiding talking to Malfoy.

Before going to take a shower she locked her newfound necklace in her trunk. The other girls were all still asleep and wouldn't even know about the necklace, but she wanted to take certain precautions anyway.

Now that she was clean, she was ready to face the day! She unlocked her trunk, unable to believe the fact that none of her dorm mates were up yet. Then she realized it was probably only 8:30 and it was only the second day of school, so they were still used to late summer mornings.

Putting on the necklace she noted that the cool weight felt good against her skin and gave off a sense of calm and security. _I think I like this necklace._ She also grabbed some string from her bracelet making kit before leaving.

Hermione walked down to the Great Hall and ate a slice of toast with some cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on it. She noted that while most of her house still slept, a lot of Ravenclaw was up as well as a few Slytherins.

Grabbing a banana for later, she began her library search. She found tons of books on dreams. Some dreams foretold of the future. Some dreams were visions of the present. On rare occasions, some dreams showed images of the not too long ago past, but some even showed past lives! Some dreams were like little therapy sessions and helped you to deal with stress in your life.

There were many more kinds of dreams, but not once did she find evidence of a dream that left the dreamer with an existing piece of the dream. She searched for hours until, finally her head started to hurt with her growing frustration. She decided she needed a reprieve. As Hermione left the library she heard someone call her name. Turning, she found Kira running down the corridor towards her.

"Hey!" she yelled out to her friend.

"Aren't you just the early bird!" Kira exclaimed as she reached Hermione. Hermione grinned at her.

"What's the banana for? Planning on a fruit heist?" Why did everyone always think she was going to steal something?

"No" she said with a laugh. "I just like bananas!"

"I remember at the hotel you ate 3 or 4 bananas a day!" Kira laughed as she remembered all the jokes people would crack about Hermione and her bananas.

"So…what are you up to?" Kira asked, wondering what people did for fun at this school.

Hermione contemplated telling Kira where she was going. It would be really fun to have a friend come with her. _Hmm…I don't see any harm in it._

"Well…"Hermione waved Kira closer. She didn't want any one else to find out about her little sanctuary. "I found the coolest place yesterday, and I'm going to go there now if you wanna come?"

"It's not like I have other plans!" Kira said, wishing she had more friends in the big school.

"Lets go then!" Hermione said, raising her banana high and earning snickers from the few people around her.

So, Hermione and Kira plodded on down the corridor, Hermione searching for the place she had gotten lost in. They looked for over 45 minutes, but neither of them minded. They made jokes and talked most of the time, which is probably why it took so long. But Hermione finally found it and made a mental note of her surroundings.

Kira pulled out her wand to light the dark corridor they wandered in until they found the rail-less stairwell. Hermione's excitement mounted with each step she took.

When she reached the circular room, the first thing she did was show Kira the awesome view from the balcony. Kira was as awed as Hermione. Then Hermione explained the weirdness of the tower and how it didn't show up on any maps or blueprints of Hogwarts. Kira was as astonished as Hermione. She told Hermione she wished she knew more about the school so she could help Hermione's investigation. Hermione told her to read Hogwarts: A History and they would go from there.

After chilling on the balcony for a few minutes, Hermione took Kira to the real mystery of the tower. The crazy invisible door.

She took out the string she had grabbed earlier and tied it around her banana. Then she tossed the banana through the wall.

"Oh my frickin' gosh!" Kira was at a lack for words after that. She'd seen some crazy things in her life, but this was just STRANGE!

"Yeah, I know!" Hermione nodded her head, agreeing with Kira's amazement.

"Yesterday I walked all the way through the door." Hermione remembered her fear at finding herself in a dark hallway.

"What was on the other side? And why did you use the banana when you could walk through it?"

"Well, I was being quite foolish yesterday when I went through the door yesterday. I didn't even realize I was doing it until it happened. And when I got to the other side, I couldn't see anything because it was so dark. I just ran back through the door."

Kira got a thoughtful look on her face. "Pull the banana back out."

Hermione did as she was told. They both inspected the banana carefully, but could find nothing wrong with it. If there were some strange creature on the other side, surely they would have done _something_ to the banana. But it was totally intact.

"Well Polly," Kira often called Hermione Polly because she had a tendency to repeat what people said as a question and it reminded Kira of a parrot. "I think it's time we saw what lies behind here!"

Before Hermione could protest, Kira had walked through the door and pulled Hermione with her.

"Kira! We have to go back!" But Kira just stood there. Hermione turned her head and saw a vast corridor lit by hundreds of wall torches.

"Amazing…" Hermione whispered.

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**A/N**: The whole banana thing was kinda odd…sorry. I don't know what came over me! _5 minutes later…_ I just had a thought…what if bananas was the key to the whole story! Come on…you know that's a great idea! LOL! _Calming down now._ I'm sorry. I had too much caffeine today! 


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